005 Josh Leve: Technology For Fitness & Wellness Studios

Josh Leve is responsible for the strategic development and growth of the Association of Fitness Studios. Josh brings more than 10 years of sales, consulting, advertising, marketing, operations, and retail experience to AFS. Josh has spent more than a decade in the fitness industry. Most recently managing large scale health clubs and successfully turning around the financial performance of three different facilities, while also providing consultative services for the boutique studio market.

The idea of AFS stemmed from combining Josh's health and fitness background, with his father Chuck's 40-year expertise in developing fitness associations. Time and time again, Josh had seen first hand, trainer after trainer leave the health club environment to start their own business, yet only to return due to the inability to find the proper resources focused on the business of owning and operating a fitness studio. In 2013, the Association of Fitness Studios (AFS) was born.

You can say running an association and being in the fitness industry was inevitable for Josh. His grandfather Mort (a member of the Handball Hall of Fame) was founder of the National Court Clubs Association (NCCA) – one of the International, Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association's (IHRSA) predecessors – and executive director of the US Handball Association (USHA).

His father, Chuck Leve (a member of the Racquetball Hall of Fame) and 40-year industry veteran, was executive director of the US Racquetball Association, a founding employee of IHRSA, and developer and builder of four fitness start-ups including IHRSA.

Prior to his health club experience Josh worked with Corbett Accel – the largest healthcare communications/advertising company in the US where he launched products for major pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis. Josh holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Kansas.

Listen To Episode 005 As Josh Uncovers

• Why many top trainers leave clubs and studios to open their own
• The roadblocks and opportunities exist for fitness studios in the next 2-3 years
• What is the AFS and how does it serve fitness and wellness studios?
• What separates successful studios from the pack?
• Josh's featured contribution in the 2017 FIT-C Tech Trends Report
• How to create strategy around word of mouth and referrals for new studio members
• What Crossfit means to the fitness and studio market landscape
• What technology is moving the needle in fitness studios
• Why doing market research is pivotal for new studio owners
• Why leveraging human connection with technology will lead the way in fitness
• Understanding when to lean on technology and when to leverage personal connection in business operations.
• How to use new technology to ease the stress of running a business

Top 3 Takeaways From The Show

• The future of successful fitness studios will be the ones that do customization and personalization best. Taking all the collected customer data and making it meaningful will separate the savvy studios from the rest of the pack.
• The consumer of today expects authenticity and high touch experiences from their studio. After all, a fitness studio by nature is deeply engrained in the local community.
• Make sure your business education and skill set runs parallel of your fitness education. Attend conferences, workshops, masterminds and the like to see what else others are using from a technology stand-point to differentiate themselves and determine if it's right for you.

Power Quotes From Josh

"In top fitness studios, it's about taking a high-touch, results driven approach and creating an experience that could never be emulated in a traditional big box facility." - Josh Leve on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

"As technology improves and more data is gathered from the human body, trainers (and thus studio owners) will need to be educated in how to make sense of this data." - Josh Leve on the Fitness + Technology Podcast

Resources Mentioned From Josh

• AFS Website
• The 100,000 + Fitness Studio Landscape:
  • Martial Arts 10,000
  • Personal Training 60,000
  • Pilates/Yoga 30,000
  • Dance Studios 10,000
  • Cycle/Spin 12,000
  • ($22B in annual revenue) fastest growing segment in the fitness industry
• IBIS World Public Data for Fitness Studios
• "Millennials Are Killing Gyms, Too."
• FitMama
• Orange Theory Fitness
• AFS Spotlight: Anthony Carey & Function First
• CrossFit Games
• Infusionsoft
• Fitness email marketing
• IHRSA
• 2016 Fitness Studio Operating and Financial Benchmarking Report
• ASF on the web
• ASF on Facebook
• ASF on Twitter
• SoulCycle
• ClassPass
• FitWall

Support This Podcast

• Leave a 5 star review on iTunes
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• Contact Kelli Hatton for sponsorship and partnership opportunities
• Download the 2017 Tech Trends report